Jaguars don't overlook winless foes

The team understands that being complacent is a dangerous thing.

Jaguars running back Fred Taylor knows the danger of playing a winless team.

"If they beat you, man, that's a terrible feeling," he said.

The Jaguars will attempt to avoid that feeling Sunday when they go on the road to play the 0-8 Cincinnati Bengals.

And if the 0-7 Lions lose to the Chicago Bears on Sunday, they will be winless when the Jaguars visit Detroit on Nov. 9.

The possibility of playing back-to-back winless teams should be just the tonic needed for a Jaguars team that's off to a disappointing 3-4 start. Victories in both games would give the Jaguars a 5-4 record when they play their next home game Nov. 16 against the AFC South-leading Tennessee Titans, who are undefeated this season.

But there's always the possibility that the Jaguars could get caught overlooking the Bengals and Lions, although Taylor said the team has too many problems of its own to take anyone lightly.

"We've only got three more [wins] than they do with nine games left," Taylor said. "They might be looking at us and trying to catch one."

If history is any indication, the Bengals and Lions eventually will win a game. No team has gone winless since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978.

But the Bengals might have a shot at it. Since losing a competitive 31-22 game to the Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati has fallen by double-digit margins in its past three games, to the New York Jets (26-14), Pittsburgh Steelers (38-10) and Houston Texans (35-6).

With quarterback Carson Palmer sidelined and being replaced by Ryan Fitzpatrick, who played his college ball at Harvard, the Bengals' offense is last in the league in yardage gained. Their run defense is ranked 28th.

Cincinnati isn't even likely to have much of a home-field advantage Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium. Because of the team's performance, there might be thousands of no-shows, and the fans who do show up could be quick to boo if the Bengals fall behind.

The Jaguars plan to ignore all that.

"I'll be just as intense as if this team was undefeated," linebacker Mike Peterson said. "If you can't get up for a winless team, you're in the wrong business."

Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio knows the pitfalls of playing against a winless team. He was a linebacker on the 1989 Dallas Cowboys team that went to Washington with a 0-8 record to meet a 4-4 Redskins squad. The Cowboys pulled off a 13-3 upset for their only victory in a 1-15 season. The Redskins went 10-6 that season.

"We competed our butts off every week," Del Rio said. "And so maybe that's why I'm sensitive to that thing because it offends me, quite honestly, when people talk about other teams and talk about them disrespectfully."

Del Rio said the important thing is not the opponent's record, but the approach the Jaguars have.

"We're working on our execution, being crisp, all the fundamentals," he said.

Del Rio said he's stressing the three As - alignment, assignment and aggressiveness. He also used a golf analogy to get across his point.

Del Rio said if a player lines up a putt, he shouldn't be thinking about "if you get it in, you could win it all. You could win the tournament. You could be a champion. You could be a hero, but if you don't [make it], it's going to be ugly. So we don't need to talk about, 'Oh, my gosh, what's going to happen if you don't [make it]."

Instead, Del Rio wants the players to concentrate on the putt.

"How about we just go left-edge firm and put your best stroke on it," he said. "I just want the basics."